The Tampa Bay Spartans group covers Michigan State alumni and friends living living along the west central coast of Florida. There are more than 2,000 of us, ranging in graduation years from 1934 – 2008. Students and their families are also encouraged to join!

This is our mission:

• To advance the personal, professional and intellectual growth of MSU alumni and friends.
• To effectively communicate with alumni, friends and the MSU community.
• To foster an enduring involvement in, and commitment to, Michigan State among our future alumni.
• To strengthen collaboration with the East Lansing campus community.  To develop and steward resources to ensure a sustained and dynamic alumni association.

Our club plans activities year-round that appeal to all interests and ages. We meet for game watches, as well as travel to watch MSU teams compete in our area: More than 200 Tampa Bay Spartans traveled as a group to Orlando for the Old Spice basketball tournament last Thanksgiving weekend and to the Capital One Bowl on New Year’s Day.

And among the MSU teams playing locally have been the baseball, softball, women’s golf, and both men’s and women’s basketball squads. The football team is scheduled to play the University of South Florida in Tampa in 2017.

The Tampa Bay Spartans also get together for networking nights, bowling events, euchre tournaments, spring training and regular season Major League Baseball games, music and museum receptions, golf tournaments and more!

Our annual Spring picnic features speakers from the campus of MSU. Past guests have included the coach of the NCAA National Champion hockey team, Rick Comley, as well as assistant football coaches including Dan Enos, Blaine Bennett, Tim Stedman and Mike Vollmar.

Other visiting speakers from East Lansing have included June Youatt, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, Barbara Ball-McClure, Director of Development, John Hill, Director of Alumni Career Services, and Alumni Assistant Director Dave Brown.

We also have created a scholarship fund, and through it the Tampa Bay Spartans have assisted three local students heading to MSU. We look forward to being able to help many more students from the Tampa Bay area. 

• Andrew Gauthier - 2007 recipient
• Alexa Nappa - 2008 recipient
• Andrew Gauthier - 2009 recipient

Local Spartans have connections to MSU’s 2010 football team – Cam Martin, Denzel Drone,  and Jairus Jones are all from high schools in our area. We look forward to rooting for our hometown boys!

We communicate with our members through our Web site, www.tampabayspartans.com, as well as through our e-mail list, our Linkedin group, and our Facebook group. Our events are also posted at the Michigan State Alumni Web site, www.msualum.com.

We encourage you to join us if you find yourself in the sunny Tampa Bay area.

Our logo says it all -- “Green Year Round”!

GO GREEN! GO WHITE! GO STATE!

Nicole McCallen

Tampa Bay Spartans President